The Bomber Dog (5 page)

‘Some of these dogs are here to be
assessed
but others are being trained as guard dogs, tracker dogs
and infantry dogs and also messenger dogs,' Michael told Nathan. ‘That
little Yorkie looks like it should be a guard dog. It'd see anyone
off.'

‘What are tracker and infantry
dogs?' Nathan asked.

‘Tracker dogs are given the scent
of someone or something and trained to find it. Infantry dogs are trained to
silently alert troops to an enemy danger by looking in the direction of the sound
and not barking,' Michael told him. ‘Then there are the messenger dogs.
Some dogs can take messages between handlers up to eight miles apart, but one mile
is usually the maximum distance the army expects from them.'

‘Sounds like we need a lot of
dogs,' Nathan said, and Michael grinned.

‘There's even talk of some
of them being trained as parachute dogs,' he said.

Nathan gave him a look of utter
disbelief.

‘It's
true,' Michael insisted.

Nathan shook his head. ‘No one can
possibly expect a dog to jump out of a plane hundreds of feet up in the air.
That's just crazy.'

‘Maybe. But I'd love to be a
paratrooper, wouldn't you? I can just imagine it.'

Nathan shook his head because he
didn't want to imagine it. He'd been terrified of heights ever since
he'd fallen off the garden shed when he was eight.

‘I don't think
there'll be many dogs that'd make the paratroop grade,' Michael
said, wistfully, as he stopped beside an empty kennel. ‘This one can be
Grey's. We'll soon find out what job he's most suitable for once
he's passed his assessment.'

‘Do you really think he's
got a chance, then?' Nathan asked.

‘Yes, I do,' Michael told
him. ‘He's interested in what's going on around him, taking it all
in. I'd say he's a smart dog.'

Nathan gave Grey one
last stroke. ‘You be a good dog,' he told him. ‘You show them just
what a good dog you are, OK?' His voice caught in his throat as Grey looked
him directly in the eye. It was almost as if he knew he was being left behind all
over again. But Nathan didn't have a choice. Call-up papers couldn't be
ignored and he was going to be late if he didn't leave soon. ‘I've
got to go.'

‘He'll be fine,'
Michael said.

Grey watched Nathan until he turned the
corner and he couldn't see him any more. Then he looked up at Michael and
whined, then looked back to the spot where he'd last seen Nathan.

Once out of sight, Nathan wiped his eyes
on his sleeve. He was going to miss Grey, but he was sure he was in good hands with
Michael.

‘He's in the best
place,' he told himself. But Grey didn't agree.

He barked in the direction Nathan had
gone and when that didn't bring him back he pulled
free from
Michael's grasp and ran after Nathan, barking frantically, with Michael
running behind him, yelling: ‘Grey, come back!'

Nathan was almost at the exit of the War
Dog Training School when Grey reached him.

‘You can't come,' he
said to the dog as Grey wagged his tail in delight at having found him.
‘You've got to go back.' He pointed back the way he'd come
and to Michael running towards them.

Grey whined. Then he sat down, cocked
his head to one side and looked up at Nathan, unsure of what he'd done wrong,
but knowing it must be something serious by Nathan's tone of voice.

Michael took hold of Grey's lead.
‘Come on,' he said. ‘You'll like it here, I
promise.'

But Grey didn't think he would,
and he struggled so hard against his lead that Michael had to virtually drag him
away, his claws
scrabbling on the road in an attempt to get a
grip.

Nathan bit his bottom lip, then turned
and headed out of the camp. He needed to get to Cardington by 4 p.m. and it was a
twenty-minute walk to Potters Bar station.

He couldn't afford to be late so
he lengthened his stride until he was almost running. The train station was just
ahead but as he dashed down the steps to the platform, he heard a happy bark and
Grey came bounding up to him, wagging his tail like crazy and looking very pleased
with himself for having tracked him down again. Nathan couldn't even begin to
imagine how the dog had been able to find him, let alone be allowed into the
station.

‘No, Grey,' Nathan said
sternly, but something in his voice told Grey that Nathan didn't really mean
it and he nudged his head under Nathan's hand for a stroke.

‘You know, I
think that dog would have followed you to the ends of the earth,' called a
voice from the top of the steps.

‘I'm sorry, sir,'
Nathan said, registering with astonishment that the voice belonged to the colonel
they'd met on the train. He went back up the steps with Grey following him,
tail wagging.

‘Well don't be. It's
just the kind of devotion I'm looking for in my war dogs.'

Nathan was confused.
‘Sir?'

‘Lieutenant Colonel
Richardson,' the colonel said, holding out his hand. ‘I run the War Dog
School and am looking for a dog exactly like yours – one that will do anything to
please its handler.'

‘But I'm not his
handler,' Nathan said.

‘Well, he certainly seems to think
you're supposed to be his handler and he's the one that matters to
me,' the colonel said. ‘I've spoken to the chaps at Cardington and
they've
agreed to my commissioning you to work for our lot.
You'll be reporting to me from now on.'

Nathan looked down at Grey, hardly able
to believe what was happening. Could it really be possible that they weren't
going to be separated after all?

‘Right, sir,' he grinned. He
couldn't think of a better way to spend the war than with Grey by his
side.

‘Get in, then,' the colonel
said as they left the station. He pointed to the back of the jeep that he'd
driven Grey in so that he could be there when he told Nathan the news.

Nathan climbed in and Grey immediately
jumped in too and gave Nathan's face a lick once he'd sat down and was
at the right level for him to do so.

‘It'll be hard work,
mind,' Lieutenant Colonel Richardson said as they drove back to the War Dog
Training School. ‘You'll be
expected to do your basic
training on top of your dog handling.'

‘That's OK,' Nathan
smiled. It'd be more than worth it if it meant that he and Grey could stay
together.

‘And make sure you massage his
ears, especially the base of them,' the colonel added. ‘They should both
be standing up by now, not one up and one down.'

‘Yes, sir.'

In a few minutes they were back at the
school and Nathan and Grey climbed out of the jeep.

The colonel watched Grey as he headed
off with Nathan. The dog had a lot of potential and with the boy handling him he was
sure they could go far. They looked like they were already a team, definitely so as
far as the dog was concerned, and he was the one that counted most. Nathan would get
far more from him than even their most experienced handlers
could,
because Grey would want to do all that Nathan asked of him.

There was a lot of secret reconnaissance
work needed prior to the D-Day mission to free France and the colonel was on the
lookout for a dog that could parachute into France with his handler. Most dogs
wouldn't be suitable and it would demand absolute trust in Nathan from the
dog. But Grey just might be one of those rare dogs they were seeking and for covert
work it helped that Nathan looked much younger than his age and might not be
immediately identified as a soldier if they were unlucky enough to be caught.

‘Welcome to the team,'
Michael said, coming to join them. He slapped Nathan on the back as Grey wagged his
tail, and they headed back to the kennel area together.

All the dog kennels had chains attached
to them because the army couldn't have the dogs wandering about as they
pleased, unsupervised.
This also prevented any dog fights. Nathan
clipped the chain to Grey's collar and followed Michael over to the
soldier's barracks.

Grey whined as Nathan left him. He tried
to follow him but the chain stopped him. He sat down, then lay down and then finally
stood up again, fretfully.

There were hundreds of new smells and
new sounds to take in all around him. But he was only interested in getting Nathan
back.

A short while later Nathan did come back
and brought with him a tin bowl full of corned beef, vegetables and dog biscuits. He
placed the food in front of Grey who gobbled it all up eagerly and then had a long
drink of water.

Once he'd finished eating, Nathan
took Grey for a walk around the camp to give him some extra lead-walking practice
before his assessment the next day. Michael and a Border collie called Topper, who
had also arrived that day and was going to be assessed too, came to join them.

‘Try varying your
pace,' Michael suggested to Nathan. And Nathan did, sometimes running and
sometimes walking slowly. Grey thought this was a great new game as he matched his
pace to his friend's.

Michael showed Nathan how to give a hand
signal when he wanted Grey to go to the left or to the right. Grey soon got the idea
of what he was supposed to do.

‘You're a quick learner,
dog,' Nathan told him, and Grey wagged his tail.

‘He is indeed one smart
dog,' Michael agreed. ‘Can he stay if you tell him to?'

Nathan didn't know.
‘Sit,' he said, and Grey obediently sat. ‘Stay,' Nathan told
him.

Nathan moved a few paces away and Grey
immediately stood up to go after him. But that wasn't what Nathan wanted him
to do. ‘No!' Grey cocked his head to one side, unsure of what he'd
done wrong. Nathan went back to him.

‘Sit.'

Grey sat.

‘Stay!' Nathan said, and he
held his hand up with the palm facing the dog to show him what he meant.

Then Nathan stepped back a few paces,
his eyes staring intently into Grey's blue ones, his palm still facing him.
Grey made the tiniest of movements to go to him and immediately Nathan repeated,
‘Stay.'

Grey stayed where he was and a few
moments later Nathan came back to him and patted him and told him what a good dog he
was.

They practised a few more times until
Nathan could walk ten paces away and stay there for thirty seconds before returning
to him. Grey knew he'd done well when Nathan knelt down and praised him. He
nuzzled his face into Nathan's and then lifted his chin so Nathan could
scratch under it.

Michael was very impressed. ‘He
really is a quick learner. He's bound to pass the test
tomorrow – so long as he doesn't panic at all the loud noises and thunder
flashes and what-not.'

‘Does it matter that he's
got one floppy ear?' Nathan asked. Most of the other German Shepherds
he'd seen so far today had ears that went straight up. Even the colonel had
commented on it.

‘I think his ears are the least of
his worries,' Michael grinned. ‘Bit of good feeding will probably sort
that out.'

When Nathan left him at his kennel for
the night, Grey expected him to come back again at first. He watched for him and
stood up every time someone went past. But finally he lay down on the blanket inside
his kennel and went to sleep.

Back at the barracks, Nathan wrote to
his mother to tell her he wasn't now going to be doing his basic training at
Cardington. He was going to be Grey's dog handler at the War Dog Training
School. Then he lay down on his
bunk bed, but couldn't get
to sleep. He was worrying about what would happen if Grey didn't pass his
assessment in the morning. What if the dog was frightened of loud noises,
understandably enough, or wouldn't perform on the day? It was expecting a lot
from a dog who'd only just been taught to sit and stay.

Nathan rolled over and thumped his lumpy
pillow to try and make it a bit more comfortable. Whatever happened tomorrow he was
now a dog handler at the War Dog Training School. But what if Grey didn't
pass? As an unregistered stray dog, the death sentence was still hanging over him if
he failed and Nathan just couldn't bear the thought. Grey had to pass, he had
to. He didn't want to be a dog handler if Grey couldn't be his dog. He
didn't want to be in the army if Grey couldn't be in it too.

Grey was awake early the next morning,
like all the other dogs, and overjoyed when he saw
Nathan heading
towards him. He barked to tell him to hurry up and then put his paws on
Nathan's shoulders and licked his face as soon as Nathan had got inside his
kennel.

‘OK, OK,' Nathan laughed.
‘I'm glad you're pleased to see me.'

He filled up Grey's water tin with
fresh water and Grey lapped at it with his long pink tongue. After a short walk it
was time for Grey to be brushed. As the brush ran down his back Grey stretched up
his head for more, reminding Nathan not to forget the place under his chin. Nathan
smiled. By the time he'd finished brushing Grey's coat, it shone. Grey
put his paw out to Nathan to ask him to continue brushing.

Nathan remembered what the colonel had
said about massaging Grey's ears and soon found that Grey loved having the
base of his ears massaged and almost purred with happiness as Nathan did it.